Klout Expands Influence Scoring To Professional Social Network LinkedIn

Klout, a startup that measures influence on Twitter and Facebook, is expanding its product today with the addition of LinkedIn. With the launch of Klout scoring for LinkedIn, you’ll be able to add your LinkedIn account to your Klout score and see your influence on the professional social network network itself.

For background, Klout evaluates users’ behavior with complex ranking algorithms and semantic analysis of content to measure the influence of individuals on social networks.

On Twitter, Klout’s influence score is based on a user’s ability to drive action through Tweets, Retweets and more. On Facebook, Klout will examine how conversations and content generate interest and engagement, via likes, comments, and more, from the network’s nearly 700 million users.

While Klout declined to give specifics on exactly what they are anlyzing (i.e. Likes, Tweets); the startup said it will analyze your interactions on the LinkedIn, who you are interacting with and engaging, and what types of content you are sharing with contacts. It’s important to note that simply having more connections on LinkedIn won’t get you a higher Klout score; it’s about the quality of those connections.

If you have your LinkedIn account synced on Klout, your influence on the network will soon be added to your overall Klout score.

Founder and CEO Joe Fernandez says that LinkedIn integration was one of the most requested features for Klout users. The company says that some users aren’t as active on Twitter, but are active on LinkedIn, and this is a way to make Klout scores more accurate. But in case you don’t really engage on LinkedIn, Klout says that your overall influence score won’t go down. In most cases users will see a score increase, even for infrequent LinkedIn users, says Klout.

Now that LinkedIn has over 100 million users and is also encouraging more sharing and engagement on the network, it probably makes sense for influence on the professional network to be measured. I’d be interested in seeing how any Klout users actually are interested in measuring their ‘Klout’ on LinkedIn.